War Journal Entry number 641 - Weekly Haul 4/1/09
MARVEL
Agents of Atlas #3 - Jeff Parker & Gabriel Hardman/Clayton Henry. Two tales for the price of one, and both are awesome.
Astonishing Tales #3 - Wolverine & Punisher by Cebulski & Rocafort continues to be OK. Iron Man 2020 by Goodbrey & Kang continues to be better than expected. Spider-Woman by Jonathon Green and Fiona Staples was a good one-off tale. Finally, Sunspot & Cannonball in Mojoworld by Hickman & Pitarra continues to be the highlight for me, and makes this whole thing worthwhile. Plus, spoofing Civil War.
Avengers/Invaders #9 of 12 - Krueger/Ross & Sadowski/Berkenkotter/Ross. Is it over yet? No? Dammit! And now what the hell is going on? The Red Skull has used the Cosmic Cube to win WWII? Great...
Dark Reign: Fantastic Four #2 of 5 - Jonathan Hickman & Sean Chen. Pretty good so far. Reed examines alternate realities for lessons to learn while, unknown to him, the rest of the team is hurtling through time and the only thing standing between Norman Osborn's troops and the Baxter Building's secrets are Franklin and Valeria.
Deadpool #9 - Way & Medina. The third part of the crossover with Thunderbolts features DP professing his love for Yelena Belova, the T-Bolts' field leader, while jumping from one violent encounter to the next.
Dr. Doom and the Masters of Evil #3 - Paul Tobin & Patrick Scherberger/Esdras Cristobal. Nice, wholesome, evil fun from beginning to end.
Franklin Richards: April Fools! - Chris Eliopoulos. It's more fun with Franklin, but what is Marvel thinking with the $3.99 price tag?
Marvel Assistant-Sized Spectacular #1 of 2 - Lots of fun (gee, it's been a fun week) from the minds of Marvel's assistant editors. A Middle-East War Story featuring D-Man by Brian Patchett and Xurxo G Penalta doe a nice job of kicking off the issue. Then there is a gorgeously illustrated American Eagle story by Jason Aaron and Richard Isanove. Closing the issue is a Hawkeye Mini-Marvels story by Chris Giarrusso. Surrounding all this is a framing tale starring the editors, done by Eliopoulos and Jacob Chabot. I'm excitedly looking forward to the next issue.
Official Index to the Marvel Universe #4 - Covers Iron Man 66-116, Amazing Spider-Man 147-197, and Uncanny X-Men 151-192.
War of Kings #2 of 6 - Abnett/Lanning & Pelletier. Politics, tactics, and more great stuff with Ronan. Fantastic.
X-Men: First Class Finals #3 of 4 - Jeff Parker & Amilcar Pinna/Roger Cruz/Colleen Coover. The main story this time around is a little weak, though it still features some hilarious dialog. The real treat is the six page tale at the end by Coover that features Man-Thing and glimpses of the X-Men's past and future.
X-Men: Kingbreaker #4 of 4 - Yost & Weaver/Diaz. It would have been nice if this had come out before War of Kings #1 as it leads directly into it, but, hey, what you gonna do? All in all, it was a fun little ride, but served mainly to set up some pieces for War of Kings.
DARK HORSE COMICS
Buffy the Vampire Slayer #24 - Jim Krueger and Cliff Richards. In the immortal words of Vamp Willow, "Bored now." This one-off story felt pointless and more like a fill-in than anything important.
IDW PRESS
G.I. Joe #4 - Chuck Dixon & Robert Atkins. Still exciting, but still with minimal plot movement.
Transformers: Maximum Dinobots #4 - Simon Furman & Nick Roche/James Raiz. The art is much more uneven than would be implied by just having two artists listed. Some pages are just right, while others are messy and overdone, and still others look like they were done in a minimalistic, cartoon style. The story is barreling towards its conclusion at full speed, picking up various subplots left over from previous series as it goes.
Transformers Spotlight: Jazz - Josh Van Reyk/Shawn Knowler & E.J. Su. An awesome, action-packed, character piece that takes place in the midst of All Hail Megatron.
WILDSTORM
Authority vol.5 #9 - Abnett/Lanning & Coleby. Still great, still post-apocalyptic.
back issue buy
DEVILS DUE PUBLISHING
G.I. Joe vs Transformers Omnibus hardcover - I picked up this collection of all four G.I.Joe vs TF miniseries done by Devil's Due because when I went to put it on my Amazon wish list I discovered it was going for over three times its already hefty $49.99 cover price. Yes, I already have all four series. Hell, I even have multiple copies of some of them for the various covers. But now I've got them in a nice, big, heavy, all-in-one-place hardcover. I'm a geek.
Agents of Atlas #3 - Jeff Parker & Gabriel Hardman/Clayton Henry. Two tales for the price of one, and both are awesome.
Astonishing Tales #3 - Wolverine & Punisher by Cebulski & Rocafort continues to be OK. Iron Man 2020 by Goodbrey & Kang continues to be better than expected. Spider-Woman by Jonathon Green and Fiona Staples was a good one-off tale. Finally, Sunspot & Cannonball in Mojoworld by Hickman & Pitarra continues to be the highlight for me, and makes this whole thing worthwhile. Plus, spoofing Civil War.
Avengers/Invaders #9 of 12 - Krueger/Ross & Sadowski/Berkenkotter/Ross. Is it over yet? No? Dammit! And now what the hell is going on? The Red Skull has used the Cosmic Cube to win WWII? Great...
Dark Reign: Fantastic Four #2 of 5 - Jonathan Hickman & Sean Chen. Pretty good so far. Reed examines alternate realities for lessons to learn while, unknown to him, the rest of the team is hurtling through time and the only thing standing between Norman Osborn's troops and the Baxter Building's secrets are Franklin and Valeria.
Deadpool #9 - Way & Medina. The third part of the crossover with Thunderbolts features DP professing his love for Yelena Belova, the T-Bolts' field leader, while jumping from one violent encounter to the next.
Dr. Doom and the Masters of Evil #3 - Paul Tobin & Patrick Scherberger/Esdras Cristobal. Nice, wholesome, evil fun from beginning to end.
Franklin Richards: April Fools! - Chris Eliopoulos. It's more fun with Franklin, but what is Marvel thinking with the $3.99 price tag?
Marvel Assistant-Sized Spectacular #1 of 2 - Lots of fun (gee, it's been a fun week) from the minds of Marvel's assistant editors. A Middle-East War Story featuring D-Man by Brian Patchett and Xurxo G Penalta doe a nice job of kicking off the issue. Then there is a gorgeously illustrated American Eagle story by Jason Aaron and Richard Isanove. Closing the issue is a Hawkeye Mini-Marvels story by Chris Giarrusso. Surrounding all this is a framing tale starring the editors, done by Eliopoulos and Jacob Chabot. I'm excitedly looking forward to the next issue.
Official Index to the Marvel Universe #4 - Covers Iron Man 66-116, Amazing Spider-Man 147-197, and Uncanny X-Men 151-192.
War of Kings #2 of 6 - Abnett/Lanning & Pelletier. Politics, tactics, and more great stuff with Ronan. Fantastic.
X-Men: First Class Finals #3 of 4 - Jeff Parker & Amilcar Pinna/Roger Cruz/Colleen Coover. The main story this time around is a little weak, though it still features some hilarious dialog. The real treat is the six page tale at the end by Coover that features Man-Thing and glimpses of the X-Men's past and future.
X-Men: Kingbreaker #4 of 4 - Yost & Weaver/Diaz. It would have been nice if this had come out before War of Kings #1 as it leads directly into it, but, hey, what you gonna do? All in all, it was a fun little ride, but served mainly to set up some pieces for War of Kings.
DARK HORSE COMICS
Buffy the Vampire Slayer #24 - Jim Krueger and Cliff Richards. In the immortal words of Vamp Willow, "Bored now." This one-off story felt pointless and more like a fill-in than anything important.
IDW PRESS
G.I. Joe #4 - Chuck Dixon & Robert Atkins. Still exciting, but still with minimal plot movement.
Transformers: Maximum Dinobots #4 - Simon Furman & Nick Roche/James Raiz. The art is much more uneven than would be implied by just having two artists listed. Some pages are just right, while others are messy and overdone, and still others look like they were done in a minimalistic, cartoon style. The story is barreling towards its conclusion at full speed, picking up various subplots left over from previous series as it goes.
Transformers Spotlight: Jazz - Josh Van Reyk/Shawn Knowler & E.J. Su. An awesome, action-packed, character piece that takes place in the midst of All Hail Megatron.
WILDSTORM
Authority vol.5 #9 - Abnett/Lanning & Coleby. Still great, still post-apocalyptic.
back issue buy
DEVILS DUE PUBLISHING
G.I. Joe vs Transformers Omnibus hardcover - I picked up this collection of all four G.I.Joe vs TF miniseries done by Devil's Due because when I went to put it on my Amazon wish list I discovered it was going for over three times its already hefty $49.99 cover price. Yes, I already have all four series. Hell, I even have multiple copies of some of them for the various covers. But now I've got them in a nice, big, heavy, all-in-one-place hardcover. I'm a geek.